TV ratings: Le Mans, F1 Baku

It might not have been the Great Showdown like Memorial Day weekend, but the controversial decision to schedule the inaugural European Grand Prix at Baku on the same weekend as the 24 Hours of Le Mans (which the Formula 1 calendar usually keeps free) didn't seem to hurt either race in terms U.S. TV audience.

NBCSN's live coverage of the F1 Azerbaijan race scored a 0.48 overnight rating on Sunday morning, averaging 569,000 viewers. That's up from the network's 0.44 rating/487,000 average for Spain (discounting Monaco on NBC and Canada's last-minute switch to NBCSN because of the Orlando mass shootings, which negatively impacted that race's audience).

Le Mans again split time between FOX Sports 1 and 2, although the schedule was made tougher to follow by last-minute changes owing to the rain delays at the U.S. Open golf tournament. Audience peaked with FS1's coverage of Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET at 350,000 viewers, beating last year's peak of 310,000. Overnight coverage from 2:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. averaged 141,000 on FS1 and declined only slightly on FS2 from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (134,000) and 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (100,000) but Sunday's audience tailed off to an average of 87,000 viewers from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. on FS1, while the dramatic finish on FS2 declined to 49,000.

With NASCAR Sprint Cup taking the weekend off, the Xfinity Series took center stage on Sunday and scored a 0.80 rating on FS1, averaging 1.4m viewers.

NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series had one of its strongest audiences of the year, running Saturday night in prime time in Iowa. The FS1 telecast averaged 898,000 viewers.

NHRA's Mello Yello Drag Racing also had another good day on Sunday, averaging 806,000 viewers for coverage of eliminations from Bristol.